Lawmakers urge FDA to suspend planned laboratory closures

The Washington Post

Published Thursday, February 01, 2007

WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration should suspend plans to close as many as nine of 13 laboratories that test the safety and effectiveness of food, drugs, cosmetics and medical equipment, a bipartisan group of senators said this week.

The network of labs, run by the agency's Office of Regulatory Affairs, "could prove particularly vital in rapidly responding to public health crises" during national emergencies, the lawmakers wrote Tuesday to FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach.

Any proposed consolidation plan should be reviewed by Congress, wrote the lawmakers, including Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.

"We recognize that FDA faces serious budget constraints that force difficult choices, but it is far from clear that consolidating ORA labs is a reasonable response to these difficult constraints," they wrote.

The 13 labs are in or near Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, Denver, Detroit, Kansas City, Little Rock, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Juan and Seattle. The consolidation plan was first disclosed in December by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a nonprofit advocacy group that obtained a Dec. 6 internal e-mail by Margaret Glavin, associate commissioner for regulatory affairs, that mentioned the FDA's plans.

The FDA has not made public which labs it intends to shutter. Jeff Ruch, executive director of the advocacy group, said FDA employees have told his organization that the Cincinnati, Denver, Detroit, Kansas City, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle labs have been mentioned as candidates for closure.

Among the duties of such labs is investigating food-borne illness such as the recent outbreaks of E. coli in lettuce and spinach. Ruch said closing labs would be a mistake at a time of heightened fears that terrorists may try to tamper with drugs or the food supply.

FDA spokeswoman Julie Zawisza said the agency would respond to the lawmakers' letter soon.

"FDA needs to make important changes to meet the new challenges we face," she said. "We are very much aware that our field operations are essential to ensuring public safety and to preserving public confidence. As we continue our efforts to optimize the effectiveness of our field force, we remain committed to public safety and to maintaining a state of readiness for potential emergencies."

Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents 600 workers at the laboratories, said the consolidation plan was "shortsighted" because many of the scientists in the labs that close probably would leave federal service rather than relocate.

"They would lose all that expertise and then have to rebuild it," said Kelley, whose union met with FDA officials in November. "The FDA has never made any kind of a business case that this consolidation would lead to better protection for the public and of public health. ... They just said 'consolidation,' which is code for budget. They think if they have fewer labs they'd save money."

The FDA told the union it planned to close an undetermined number of the laboratories by April, she said.